Constant Crush: Limited Edition
By David Keck
We would like to extend a hearty welcome to Bree and Chad Stock’s newest project in Oregon: Limited Addition (Ltd. +)!
Bree is an Australian-born Master of Wine (the joke here is that Master Sommeliers are MWs with social skills and MWs are MSs who can write… Bree has social skills AND can write!) who moved to Oregon to work with the Oregon Wine Marketing Board. Chad graduated from California State University Fresno with top honors in Enology, and from there went to work with Rudd winery, then Antica Terra, before starting his own Minimus project in 2011.
Together Bree and Chad founded Constant Crush, helping with vineyard and winery development, low-intervention wine-making consulting, and establishment of rare grape varieties. With Ltd. +, we get to taste the proverbial fruits of their labors in their own wines! Each label has the ingredients listed: Dry-farmed grapes, sulfur, all the farming and winemaking is low-intervention, indigenous yeasts, basically they take really beautifully farmed fruit and make delicious wines.
Having known both Bree and Chad for a while now, it is amazing to have the opportunity to sell their wines here in Vermont. Their winemaking ethos, dedication to the land and community, and overall commitment to making better and better wines, all line up perfectly with what we seek out here at the Shepherd.
We’ve started with three wines from them (they only make a handful thus far!), a Cab Franc field blend (blending clonal selections, not different varieties), a Grenache Rosé (definitely a ‘winter rosé’ with deep color and beautiful savory spice, a house favorite), and finally a fun co-fermentation of Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris that is aged in amphora (ancient style of aging in a clay vessel—allows some oxygen contact). All are in and available (co-fermentation of Pinot is super limited, but others in decent inventory!).